My post last month, ''The DPT: How Did They Miss This?'' has generated numerous comments on the ADVANCE website, almost entirely from readers who agreed with its content. One exception, however, was an assistant professor of physical therapy who stated that making the DPT a mandatory entry-level degree was necessary for the pursuit of autonomous ...

Besides volunteering recently at the Texas Physical Therapy Association (TPTA) annual conference, I also had a chance to meet with both professionals and students. It turned out the number of PT schools is a hot topic in the profession. The answer depends on who you ask.
Students and would-be students both think there aren't enough schools. They ...

The more I talk to therapists around the country, the more I get the impression very few of us think that requiring the DPT as the entry-level degree for the profession was a good idea. Taken apart from other issues, the DPT is a good thing. But as the required degree, it created a problem. The market did not and does not support it.
Several ...

I've spent more time thinking about the ''new'' APTA. This could be a golden opportunity for the APTA to reinvent itself and address the needs of its current non-members. By asking questions and actually listening to the answers, its membership might grow and it could become a true association of the profession.
Alas, I just don't think so. I ...

Last weekend I attended a Texas Physical Therapy Association (TPTA) meeting. The purpose was to rethink our strategy for the next few years. It seems the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) has been researching why its message isn't being received. Thousands of dollars were spent on consultants to tell them why this has been ...

For the past few weeks, I've been blogging about problems within the profession of physical therapy and our frustrations over them. Everyone agrees on the problems. There is probably some disagreement on which ones should be addressed first. After all, they are interdependent. Attempting to improve any of them would be a step in the right ...

The morning of June 4 started very early for more than 1,000 dedicated attendees at the American Physical Therapy Association's NEXT 2015 Conference & Exposition in National Harbor, Md. These hardy souls awoke before the sun, donned their professional best and headed downstairs by 6 a.m. for a quick breakfast before boarding shuttle buses ...

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD -- The APTA Annual Conference & Exposition, which was rebranded last year as ''NEXT,'' just celebrated its 2015 incarnation in this inviting little town on the Potomac River outside Washington, D.C. The conference drew thousands of excited physical therapy professionals and advocates from all over the country, kicking off ...

As many ADVANCE readers are likely aware, the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) last year rebranded its traditional ''Annual Conference & Exposition'' as simply ''NEXT''. The APTA website stated at the time, ''It's a name change, but more than that it's a commitment to making APTA's June conference about looking into the future of ...

I've been reading the responses to my various blogs over the past few weeks. The responses seem to be echoing what I've been saying. Hardly anyone has had anything to say in support of the APTA. Many explain why they don't belong.
The general consensus is the APTA doesn't represent the majority of PTs and PTAs. No one wrote in support of its ...